Direct Air's Bankruptcy, Legoland's Water Park Among Newsmakers

Sunday

Dec 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 31, 2012 at 12:45 AM

2012 was a slow year for the Polk County economy, but as usual, there were plenty of interesting headlines when it came to business news.

2012 was a slow year for the Polk County economy, but as usual, there were plenty of interesting headlines when it came to business news.Before 2013 gets going, have a look at some of last year's most notable business stories.

CARBENDAZIM CONUNDRUMThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration roiled the international orange juice market on Jan. 9, when it announced it would begin testing all OJ imports for carbendazim and banning any products containing the illegal fungicide.The announcement sent U.S. retail OJ sales plummeting by double-digit percentages until May, when the FDA announced the end of the testing program. The testing also reduced OJ imports from Brazil, the world's largest citrus juice processor, to a trickle until the fall.The latter benefited Florida orange growers by sending farm prices to near record levels because Florida juice processors, who supply most of the North American market, worried about fruit supply shortages.The FDA testing began after the two largest domestic OJ brands, Tropicana and Minute Maid, reported finding traces of carbendazim in some OJ products containing juice from Florida and Brazilian sources. Carbendazim was legal in Brazil and widely used until the FDA testing program.The FDA ruled the Tropicana and Minute Maid products could be sold in the U.S. because carbendazim levels were safe, but it barred any imports with a detectable trace of the fungicide, which also included products from Canada and other countries made with Brazilian OJ.

DIRECT AIR GROUNDEDAfter expanding to Lakeland in 2011 — bringing the area's first regular passenger flight service in more than 20 years — Direct Air hit major turbulence in March when the firm canceled all flights and filed for bankruptcy. Officials with the South Carolina-based discount airline blamed "rising fuel costs and other operating expenses (that) pushed the charter company into a severe operating loss position." Direct Air had operated in 17 cities, including Lakeland. The company was approved for a Chapter 7 liquidation in April. Among those impacted by the fallout was Sky King Airlines, a charter-jet service that operates in Lakeland and provided planes and crew to Direct Air. Sky King filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in September.

LEGOLAND MAKES A SPLASHFollowing its grand debut in October 2011, Legoland Florida cooled off in May when the Winter Haven attraction opened a water park. The event was marked with a successful Guinness World Record attempt for the most beach balls thrown into the air at one time (1,355).

BUSINESS AND JOB GROWTHThere were a few new business developments in 2012 that should bode well for the local job market.In May, Tampa-based Sykes Enterprises officially announced plans to open a 92,000-square-foot call center at the former FedEx National LTL facility on Griffin Road in Lakeland. Sykes expects to hire an estimated 600 workers at the facility, which could begin operating sometime in the second half of 2013.Other promising job news came from Missouri-based O'Reilly Auto Parts. In September, The Ledger reported that O'Reilly had submitted plans to build a new facility on County Line Road in Lakeland. Construction on the 380,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to begin by January and finish in 2014, when O'Reilly is projected to hire more than 300 people.

LIFESTYLE RUNS OUT OF MUSCLENews broke in June that the St. Petersburg-based Lifestyle Family Fitness chain would no longer exist after selling its 32 Florida locations to L.A. Fitness. Lifestyle only had two remaining Polk locations (in Lakeland and Winter Haven) after shutting down a North Lakeland gym in December 2011, but there was another local connection to the story.Lifestyle was created here in 1982 at the East Lemon Street location near downtown Lakeland, which is still operating today under the L.A. Fitness name. "Lakeland was a perfect starting point for us," Lifestyle founder Geoff Dyer said in a 2007 Ledger inter-view.Reached by phone in June, Dyer said he still had "a special place in my heart" for the small Lemon Street gym.

PUBLIX HEADS "NORTH"Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc. continued its expansion throughout the Southeastern United States when the company announced in September that it will be entering North Carolina.The first Publix there, located in the community of Ballantyne in the greater Charlotte area, is tentatively scheduled to open in early 2014. It will give Publix a presence in a sixth state in the Southeast.Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten described the North Carolina expansion as "a natural extension for us," noting the grocer already had two stores just across the state line in the South Carolina towns of Indian Land and Fort Mill.Publix currently operates a total of 1,070 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.

CITRUS RESEARCH SCANDALThe University of Florida is investigating Jackie Burns, one of the most powerful research officials in Florida citrus, on charges of intellectual property theft.UF announced the investigation on Oct. 10 in response to a Ledger story detailing the allegations from Allan Burrage, former head of information technology at UF's Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, whom Burns fired in March. As director of the Lake Alfred Center and its sister, the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee, Burns oversees all the university's citrus-related research.Burrage claims the firing came after he blew the whistle on Burns to UF officials from Gainesville, accusing her of improperly using another researcher's data. Burns maintains she acted because of Burrage's poor performance in switching the Lake Alfred center's computer network to the main UF system.Burrage filed a whistleblower complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Rights, which found reasonable cause to believe Burns fired him in retaliation. Burrage settled that complaint after a Dec. 17 mediation conducted by the human rights agency.The university has not yet released results of its investigation.

NEW LOOK FOR CFDCThe Central Florida Development Council went through a major transformation in 2012.Using recommendations from an outside consultant, the public-private economic development group reorganized itself with the aim of increasing financial contributions from the private sector, and more importantly, giving local business leaders a more active role in the county's economic development initiatives.The CFDC is largely dependent on public funding, but going forward, the organization will require board members to make annual "investments" ranging from $1,000 to $25,000.

[ Kyle Kennedy can be reached at kyle.kennedy@theledger.com or 863-802-7584. ]

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